Japan broadcasts Super Hi-Vision signal over the air

Japan's national public broadcaster NHK has revealed that it successfully broadcast a compressed Super Hi-Vision (SHV) signal carrying video at a resolution of 7680 x 4320, 16 times the resolution of regular HD. This is the first time that SHV has been transmitted over the air.

On April 15, NHK successfully broadcast the video via two channels of ultra-high frequency radio from the roof of its Science and Technology Research Laboratories. It was decoded at a distance of 4.2 km (2.6 miles) without error.

Japan's AV Watch reports that, across the two channels used (UHF31 and UHF34), a data transmission bandwidth of 183.6 Mbps was achieved.

Super Hi-Vision is NHK's preferred name for ultra high definition television (UHDTV) at this definition, also known as 8K (or 8K4K). It was one of two UHDTV standards defined by the Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers in 2007, the other being the lesser 4K (or 4K2K) standard with a resolution of 3840 x 2160, as seen in UHDTVs by Samsung and Toshiba, as well as JVC's 4K2K camera. (JVC's D-ILA projector also discussed at the time supports 8K.) A frame rate of 120 frames per second for both UHDTV standards was subsequently agreed.

James lives in East London where he punctuates endless tea drinking with freelance writing and meteorological angst. Unlocking Every Extend Extra Extreme’s “Master of Extreme” achievement was the fourth proudest moment of his life. All articles by James HollowayFollow @jamesholloway

So what do you do with picture quality that is... well it's so good now it's getting hard to tell a reasonably good screen from a high quality film picture.

Aside from really high magnification of screen components - like a flower in a garden bed, I don't know.

Perhaps it may explain why people are getting into basic gearless bicycles and turning off their TV's and refusing to use smart phones.

Mr Stiffy 23rd May, 2012 @ 04:52 am PDT

@ Mr Stiffy - What are you talking about, people are getting better tv's and people love smart phones.

Derek Howe 23rd May, 2012 @ 04:08 pm PDT

It would be interesting to see H.D.,4 X & 8X side by side to compare the clarity. Doesn't seem like anybody is making money in this cut throat (price) environment. The manufacturers are cutting quality/cost as well with partial side back lit LED's instead of full as well.

chidrbmt 24th May, 2012 @ 09:47 am PDT

Hmmm. 16 times the resolution of regular HD TV. That makes it 100 times better than Comcast!

freedomsailor 24th May, 2012 @ 01:14 pm PDT

What is the good of it when here in Aust. we cannot even get the available full HD now on almost all of our channels as greedy Stations have opted to multicast on their allocated bandwidth to give more channels instead so they can saturate and I mean saturate them with ads.

If it's quality or money, then money will win anytime unless it is legislated.

Facebook User 25th May, 2012 @ 06:53 pm PDT

At this resolution and lack of money available from advertising companies, is it going to be a viable business to transmit? ... to be honest, I don't think it will.

What I would suggest, is that a company like Lovefilm, etc, adopt it as a station to transmit signals direct to a 4-8k resolution TV Set or even better a projector device. You get also the added advantage of getting rid of blueray units, and ugly wires in one go!

Infact, imagine having a portable projector device, that allows one to watch a huge screen whilst on holiday ... hhhmmm? ... I wonder what the bandwidth the 4G mobile network can broadcast? ... WOW!!! ... a smartphone with builtin-projector ... I want one NOW!